Episode 1606 - Let the Catfights Begin
The sixth episode of Season 16 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on November 4, 2016. On that episode the chefs cooked by the alphabet, a Family Night dinner service took place, and one team conspired to sabotage one of their own. Intro While going back to the dorms, Devin claimed that he was not trying to throw either Andrew or Johnny under the bus, but the former was pissed that Devin was still around as he felt that he sucked at cooking, before accusing him of still being hostile towards him. Then, Devin said that he hated being attacked by his teammates, who deemed were part of a clique, and declared that he would watch his own back as nobody else would. Team Challenge The next day, both teams came downstairs to find Ramsay standing in front of library books, and after he welcomed them to the Hell’s Kitchen library, he revealed that the one connection cooking and kitchens had were cookbooks. For the Ingredient Crossword Challenge, each team would be using books to decide what they would be cooking as they would be spelling out their ingredients. However, Devin revealed that he sucked at spelling words as English was not his strongest subject at school. One at a time, each chef would grab a book that had a letter on it, spell out what ingredient they wanted to cook with, and then the next chef would spell out the next ingredient by sharing the letters on the board, which excited Heather as she deemed the blue team dumb as rocks. The chefs had five minutes to spell out their words, and Johnny and Aziza were the first chefs from their teams to spell. While Kimberly wanted tenderloin, Shaina convinced Aziza to use chicken, much to the former’s annoyance as it was versatile, but a boring ingredient, before recalling how Shaina kept calling out chicken during the Protein Identification Challenge. Meanwhile, Matt told Johnny to lay out the letters in a good place, and the latter spelled out ribeye while Aziza spelled out chicken, though Wendy got dismayed as the latter spelled it out on the center of the board, meaning that they had very little side to work off from. Matt decided to spell out crab, but that dismayed the blue team as they wanted rice instead. As the spelling continued, Ryan spelled out carrot, Paulie spelled out yam, Wendy spelled out lime, which Heidi deemed an ingredient she could work with, Kimberly spelled out beans, and Andrew spelled out bacon. While the red team wanted Heidi to spell out bacon, she had no idea where to place it as the intersection letters would not work out. Meanwhile, Devin struggled to find out where to spell out onion, and Paulie deemed him not the sharpest tool, before accusing Devin of performing Japanese algebra. Eventually, Devin managed to spell out onion, while Heidi decided to spell out turnip, and while Koop spelled out okra, Heather struggled to find a place to spell out snap peas, before deciding to leave it as snap on the board. As time was running out, Shaina spelled out pea, and while Johnny decided to spell out pea as well, he dropped the A on the board, but managed to get it back up on time. After the time was over, the blue team questioned the red team’s word choices for snap and pea, and Ramsay disqualified that ingredient. The chefs had 45 minutes to create an entrée dish using their chosen ingredients, and could choose to use how many of them they wanted. While the red team had different ideas on what ethnicity they wanted to cook their chicken, Devin’s idea was poorly received by Andrew, who called it an awful sounding dish, but decided to let Devin cook it as he wanted the latter gone. In the red kitchen, Kimberly had no idea what to make with the red team’s ingredients, and wondered how they could use them to make seven chicken dishes that stood out from each other. In the blue kitchen, Paulie came up with crab stuffed okra for his dish as he wanted to do stuff more technical, and in the red kitchen, Aziza discovered that her chicken was not properly cooked, but was forced to plate it. Eventually, both teams managed to get their dishes cooked and plated on time. Because the red team had an extra person, Ramsay asked for one of them to step down. After a short discussion, Aziza’s dish was pulled off for having raw chicken, even though she was pissed that she had yet to show Ramsay her creativity. Each dish would be scored on a 1-5 ranking based on presentation, creativity, and taste, and the team with the most points at the end would win the challenge. The blue team was up first, and Paulie presented his grilled ribeye with crab stuffed okra. Ramsay noted that the presentation looked strange, the okra was criticized for being improperly prepared and raw, the puree was deemed slimy, and Ramsay deemed the horribly cut ribeye the worst bastardization he saw that year. So, Paulie scored only one point, and he was pissed as he was not used being in the bottom. However, Ramsay warned Paulie that while he could get defensive, he was not going to kiss his ass over raw okra, and when Paulie asked if there was anything redeeming about the dish, Ramsay simply said that the plate was that aspect, before telling him to fuck off. That led an annoyed Devin to tell Paulie to stop acting that he was better than anybody else, and when he presented his dish, Andrew felt that Devin’s critique would be interesting. However, Devin’s grilled ribeye with mustard glazed sautéed crab was praised for looking like an actual ribeye, having a delicious taste to it, having a good mustard component, and he scored 4 points. Then, Matt’s ribeye topped with crab imperial was praised for being delicious, but criticized for having a clumsy plating on the crab, and he scored 3 points, while Johnny’s sweet and spicy grilled ribeye with fried egg and fried okra was praised for having a perfectly cooked steak, and he scored 3 points as well. Then, Koop’s southern style ribeye Oscar and yam hash were praised for having a béarnaise sauce along with a delicious hash, and he scored 4 points. Andrew was the final person from the blue team to compete, and he presented his seared ribeye with a pea and truffle puree. However, Ramsay called it the most meniscal dishes he seen so far, and when he asked Andrew why he did not add okra or yams to the dish, the latter answered that he felt they were not needed. Then, Ramsay criticized the sear for being insufficient, the dish for being plain, Andrew scored 2 points, and Devin smugly said that he beat the latter that day. In the end, the blue team ended with 17 points, which made Ryan feel like it should not be a difficult task for the red team. Kimberly was the first chef from the red team to have her dish judged, and she presented her Asian inspired chicken infused with ginger, lemongrass, and cilantro. Ramsay deemed the dish delicious, praised the presentation for looking colorful, and Kimberly scored 4 points. Then, Heidi’s curry chicken breast with brown butter carrot was praised for the fragrant ginger smell that matched well with the spice, and she scored 4 points as well. However, Wendy’s Latin-inspired chicken was criticized for an unsexy presentation despite having a crispy skin, and she scored 2 points. Then, Heather’s honey ginger lime chicken was hard for Ramsay to swallow, and she scored only one point, while Shaina’s southern fried chicken was criticized for being cooked to hell and being dry, which annoyed Kimberly as the latter was the one that pushed for that protein, before declaring that Shaina sucked. So, Shaina scored only one point, and Ryan was the last person on the red team to have her dish judged. She presented her Asian inspired chicken breast, and while she hated her teammates for leaving it all up to her, Ramsay praised the dish for being tasty. In the end, while Ramsay deemed Ryan’s dish the best of the red team, he gave her only 4 points, and the blue team won the challenge 17-16. While Devin was happy that the blue team won the challenge, he was waiting for a thank you from Andrew and Paulie. Reward The blue team was rewarded with a bumper car experience on ice, and eating a steak dinner, which excited Devin as he was looking forward to a great steak. During the reward, while Koop called bumper cars a thing he liked to do back home, he deemed bumper cars on ice a first for him, and Johnny felt like a six-year-old again, before calling it awesome. During dinner, Koop said that it was great to spend some time outside the restaurant, but knew that the blue team still had a lot of work to do as, despite winning challenges, they looked like rejects come dinner service. While Devin suggested that they tone down the yelling in the kitchen, Paulie and Andrew disagreed with that idea, and an annoyed Devin felt that the two acted like they were better despite having the worst two dishes in the challenge. However, Andrew said that he was loud due to being from Philadelphia, and told Devin to get the fuck out if he did not like his yelling, and Matt commented that they cannot work together despite thinking that they were. Punishment Ramsay informed the red team that the following service would be Family Night, and their punishment was to help Marino with his chores which included inflating balloons, resetting the dining room, and baking a special batch of cookies for the kids. Then, Ramsay called Marino out to the dining room, and after the latter dumped a whole container of crayons to the floor, Ramsay added on that the other thing was to organize the crayons into packs with one of each color. During the punishment, Shaina complained about her aching back. Later, both Ryan and Heather shared a hatred of baking, and when Shaina refused Heidi’s request of counting their cookie batches and whipping down a dirty counter, Kimberly complained that she was not used to working with lazy people like the latter, and commented that she would have fired Shaina’s ass already if it was her business. That led to an argument between Kimberly and Shaina as the former accused the latter of following her around, and reminded Shaina that they were in the kitchen because she could not cook chicken. However, Shaina argued that she was not watching over Kimberly, and tried to keep her voice down so she would not stoop to the latter’s level. Before service After completing their punishment, the red team decided to go to bed early at 9:32 pm, while Devin decided to sleep around that time as well. Later that night at 11:44 pm, Koop asked how the blue team could win dinner service, and Andrew suggested that everybody had to take care of their own station, before declaring that if any of them fucked up, they would be nominated. The rest of the blue team agreed with that idea, and Andrew deemed it a turning point for the blue team. The next day, both teams began prepping for Family Night and reviewed the kids menu for that night. While most of the women were excited to see kids as they loved them, Heather noted that Wendy was the only chef in the red that was not a mother, and wanted to make the kids happy as that would make the parents happy. After giving both teams a reminder of what to do, Ramsay asked Marino to open Hell’s kitchen for Family Night. Dinner Service Lauren Lapkus and Ciara Hanna were in attendance that night, and in addition to the kids menu, a special quesadilla station was manned by Andrew and Kimberly. Recalling how his teammates threw him under the bus after the previous service, Devin wanted to prove to them that he was a top competitor. However, Devin was late on his grilled cheese, and when he sent it up, it was raw, causing an annoyed Paulie asked how Devin could fuck up on a grilled cheese. In the red kitchen, Heidi pushed Shaina to put her pizza in the pizza oven, and despite her warning about it needing a few more minutes, Shaina ignored Heidi and sent it up to the pass. However, the pizza was raw, and an annoyed Heidi felt that Shaina should listen to her next time as Ramsay asked the latter if she fed her children raw dough. Despite neither team serving any appetizers, the kids were distracted by the activities in the dining room, and in the red kitchen, Shaina’s refire was accepted. With the red team pushing out appetizers, they moved onto entrées, and Aziza decided to be ahead by having all of her garnishes ready for the entrées to be served. However, Ramsay caught Aziza cooking way too many garnishes that were being stacked further away from her station, and an annoyed Heather asked the latter what she was doing as they had no proteins ready. One hour into service, Devin’s refire was accepted, and on their next ticket, Paulie said that he liked kids despite owning a dog and a cat, and deemed him a kid at heart. However, Paulie sent up a raw burger, Ramsay brought the entire blue team to the back pantry, and yelled that while he may not care for waiting, he cared a lot about waiting for raw food. Johnny asked for somebody to help Paulie out, and Koop said that the latter was losing credibility as a chef. After going back into the kitchen, Paulie was able to get the refire accepted, and the blue team were starting onto entrées. While Johnny and Matt communicated on times, Paulie sent up his sea bass without telling the two, and Johnny was pissed as he was not ready on sea bass garnish. Then, while Johnny was able to send up the garnishes, Matt was waiting for his steaks to rest, and then, Ramsay not only discovered that Johnny’s eggs were raw, but Paulie’s sea bass was raw as well. Johnny blamed Paulie for rushing him, Ramsay ordered the latter not to open his mouth unless he wanted something in there, and deemed their performance embarrassing. In the red kitchen, Aziza has recovered from her garnish mishap, and sent them up to Ramsay’s approval. While entrée orders were being sent out, Wendy revealed that she grew up on a farm, and that did not like the taste of gamey meat, before comparing to the smell of lamb to a milk cow. However, while Heather gave out a time for her salmon, Wendy did not, and Heidi tried to urge her not to slow down. Then, Wendy’s lamb was raw, Ramsay said that it still had its fur on, and an annoyed Ryan felt that they were falling apart. As a result, a dismayed Wendy was forced to start over, and customers were beginning to grow impatient. Two hours into service, Ramsay caught Heather cooking the salmon refire with the skin side up instead of down, but she argued that she did not want to ruin the skin, hoping to bang it out with no more mistakes. However, Heather’s salmon was raw and cold, Ramsay berated her for that, and reminded the red team that it should be cooked skin side down as he smashed it to bits. In the blue kitchen, the men were able to push out entrées, and soon after, Heather’s third attempt was accepted. Despite some bumps, both teams were able to complete service with no other problems. Post-mortem When both teams were lined up, Ramsay deemed that service an embarrassment as there were problems on every station, before naming both teams’ joint-losers, and asking them to nominate two each. During deliberation, Ryan called the previous two days a frustrating experience, claimed that her teammates were not pulling their own weight, and felt that their poor performance that night was the icing on a shit cookie. While Shaina asked which station went down that night, Ryan bluntly said that every station went down that night, before the former accused Aziza of going down the most. However, while Aziza admitted that she was overzealous at the start, Ryan reminded her that she was not consistent that night, even though Aziza felt that she was getting pinned the blame when there were others that shared it. Then, Heather argued that she had only one fish sent back that night, and while Wendy recalled her raw lamb incident, she felt that she was doing well for the rest of that night. With the second nominee between Heather and Wendy, Shaina struggled to decide who to put up. On the blue side, Johnny reminded the blue team about the promise they made the previous night, before deeming Devin and Paulie as the ones who struggled the most that night. However, Koop did not recall what went wrong with Devin, and the latter said that with the exception of the raw grilled cheese, he did well that night. However, Matt enforced the promise made last night, but Devin had no idea what was going on as he was sleeping around that time, and was angry that they did that, before confronting them. When the blue team asked Devin who he would nominate instead, he picked Johnny for the raw spinach and for poor performances in challenges, but Paulie called him delusional, leading to a fierce shouting match. Elimination Johnny announced Paulie as the men’s first nominee, with Devin as the second, and Ryan announced Aziza as the women’s first nominee, with Wendy as the second. During their pleas, Paulie claimed that he brought everything to the table, said that there was no excuse for his poor performance, and when asked by Ramsay if he was a better chef than Devin, he said yes as he worked better with a team than the latter. However, Devin believed that he was moving up the ladder by not repeating his mistakes, while Wendy felt hat she was strong up until that point, and knew she could fight back. However, Ramsay reminded her that her lamb still had its wool on the pass, and Wendy admitted that she got inside her own head. Then, Ramsay asked Aziza what happened that night, and she believed that she got too far ahead over her sides, and that her drive came from the kitchen. However, Ramsay told Aziza that she fitted the definition of “the lights are on but no one’s home”. After, Ramsay sent Devin and Wendy back in line, before commenting how hard it was to pick either Aziza or Paulie as both of them had their worst performances that night. In the end, Aziza was eliminated for her poor performance on garnish, but before leaving, Ramsay praised her for being passionate. After Aziza left, Ramsay warned both teams that he would not tolerate another service like they had, and he would be cutting chefs in a faster rate if it happened again. While being dismissed, Devin wanted to prove them all wrong, and that he was not the weakest chef on the blue team, while Ryan was unsure of where the red team was heading as they should be getting stronger and not worse. Then, Wendy felt that she had a wake up call, before declaring that she was coming back stronger. Ramsay's comment: "Aziza has four kids at home. I think they need her more than I do, unless of course, they're hungry." Category:Episodes Category:Season 16